Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Christopher Slye @slye.bsky.social · 4h

I was in a carpet/flooring store yesterday and... wow, I think this company needs to think hard about its brand design.

A sign above a flooring display that reads "COREtec / the Original". The first line is set large in Apple’s Macintosh Chicago font. The second line is set smaller in something that resembles Comic Sans.

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Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 1d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Christopher Slye @slye.bsky.social · 1d

Went into the local hardware store today and they were in the middle of setting up their Christmas displays. 😬

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David Demaree @demar.ee · 2d

These 3-4 companies are basically passing a trillion or so dollars back and forth between each other in a massive shell game to convince us there’s massive demand for technologies that nobody wants that don’t even work half the time

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Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 2d

Reading this thread while in my 3rd airport in 2 days (on my way to a 4th) and whether you travel a lot or not, it's an amazing read.

Nome @nome.bsky.social · 2d

Some things I've learned in my first few weeks:

1) There is a grey market candy swapping racket between janitors, TSA agents, CSRs, and everyone else who has to stand someplace all day at the airport.

Hi-chews, sour candies, and gummy anything are in highest demand.

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Christopher Slye @slye.bsky.social · 3d

Thanks to this article by @davidwondrich.bsky.social, I made a 50-50 Martini with Plymouth Navy Strength gin (and Noilly Prat dry vermouth if you want to know), and it might be my new favorite thing.

The Secrets to the Best Dry Martini You’ll Ever Have

Our legendary columnist reveals his recipe and tips for making this classic cocktail.

www.thedailybeast.com

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Christopher Slye @slye.bsky.social · 3d

Oh no.

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Christopher Slye @slye.bsky.social · 3d

I’ve said this before but I will repeat: When a company tells me they are “experiencing unusually high call volumes” *every single time*, it is no longer unusual.

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David Demaree @demar.ee · 3d

Sometimes Liquid Glass™ is fine, other times it's like someone used a Kai's Power Tools filter on important parts of your desktop

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Rick Caruso’s Private Fire Crew @amandasmith.bsky.social · 3d

Suspending Erin Biba, a Jewish woman for this skeet is nasty work. Between this and intentionally misreading Link’s use of a meme as a threat, bsky mods are more than willing to ban based on the Spirit Of The Law for *some* posters but never Jesse Singal.

bsky.app/profile/aman...

"All the Jews have to die or convert to trigger the rapture. Then our dead bodies surround Jerusalem and they climb over us to reach Jesus, who will bring them to heaven. It's why they're all Zionists obsessed with Israel.
Cause they need Jews to go there so we can die"

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Herzberg Design Co @herzberg.bsky.social · 3d

The most minimalist “1” I could manage drawing, in honor of @letterformarchive.org’s 10th anniversary. I think that everyone in the typosphere has, at some point or another, benefitted from the Archive and its tireless efforts to preserve, showcase, and honor the mighty letterform.

A highly decorative number “1”, colored in red and gold and blue on a black background.

As most of my illustration work, this was drawn in procreate on the same rusty trusty iPad that I’ve owned since 2020. The lettering is inspired by classicist Baroque ornament of acanthus and garland and cherubs, but this isn’t here applied to decorate any object: it *is* the object. I opted for mono-width lines with a bit of texture to them (using the default “narinder pencil” procreate brush), which makes it look more like a seventies children’s book than a seventeenth century bible.

A highly decorative number “1”, colored in tan and gold on a black background.

As most of my illustration work, this was drawn in procreate on the same rusty trusty iPad that I’ve owned since 2020. The lettering is inspired by classicist Baroque ornament of acanthus and garland and cherubs, but this isn’t here applied to decorate any object: it *is* the object. I opted for mono-width lines with a bit of texture to them (using the default “narinder pencil” procreate brush), which makes it look more like a seventies children’s book than a seventeenth century bible.

A highly decorative number “1” in black and white.

As most of my illustration work, this was drawn in procreate on the same rusty trusty iPad that I’ve owned since 2020. The lettering is inspired by classicist Baroque ornament of acanthus and garland and cherubs, but this isn’t here applied to decorate any object: it *is* the object. I opted for mono-width lines with a bit of texture to them (using the default “narinder pencil” procreate brush), which makes it look more like a seventies children’s book than a seventeenth century bible.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 3d

this is incredible

Ian Gordon @idgordon.bsky.social · 3d

If you'd like to delight in a side-by-side comparison, here's Bari Weiss' reported note to CBS staffers (left) and the one I cooked up on ChatGPT with a quickly dashed-off prompt (right). Looking forward to hearing from you in the days and weeks ahead!

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Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 4d

Pretty clear Stephen Miller, Noem, Hegseth and Trump are trying to provoke a Civil War at this point. What's interesting is they want to do it now, because even though they're unpopular, they seem to believe this is the most popular they'll be ever again. We can't let them win.

Governor Gavin Newsom @governor.ca.gov · 4d

This is a breathtaking abuse of the law and power by the President of the United States.

America is on the brink of martial law.

Do not be silent.

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 4d

This evening, President Trump is ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States. No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate.

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Typotheque @typotheque.com · 4d

People perceive thickness of letters very individually, and that’s why we are conducting Font Weight Survey to understand the regional preferences of font weight. Could we ask you for 10 min of your time? The findings will be published publicly once we have some results.
tptq.com/weight

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Matthew Rowley @mbrowley.bsky.social · 5d

Seems a prudent time to bulk scan holographs, manuscripts, and other unique/rare historical documents in my library. Just in case, you know?

Considering the Czur ET Max. Any museum, library, archives, or collector colleagues have recs on this or other options?

shop.czur.com/products/ets...

CZUR ET Scanner: Professional Document Scanner

CZUR ET series Professional Document Scanner, 2nd Gen Auto-Flatten & Deskew Tech, 16-38MP Sony Camera, Capture A3, 186 Languages OCR, Convert to PDF/Searchable PDF/Word/Tiff/Excel, Run On Windows & ma...

shop.czur.com

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Christopher Slye @slye.bsky.social · 6d

My thoughts exactly.

(Also, just a week ago I asked my wife, “Why has Trump not yet tried to put his face on currency?”)

darth™️ @darthbluesky.bsky.social · 6d

hold on just a second here

blue sky screen shot from Bill Kuchman saying "Treasury Department considers minting a $1 Trump coin" quote posted by Adam Weinstein saying "Only the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on United States currency and securities." 31 USC 5114(b)

blue sky screen shot from Aaron Rupar saying
"Trump has not been seen in public since Tuesday and had no public events on his calendar today"

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Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 6d

I am once again calling on state governors to mobilize their National Guards to escort congressmembers into ICE facilities so they can DO THEIR LAWFULLY ASSIGNED FEDERAL DUTIES

Kat Abughazaleh @katmabu.bsky.social · 6d

Federal agents are overtly abusing their power to try to intimidate advocates and elected officials. We need ICE out of Illinois immediately and justice for people like Ald. Jessie Fuentes who are defending their communities.
blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/03/f...

Federal Agents Handcuff Chicago Alderperson At Hospital ER

In another incident caught on video Friday, federal agents inside a car randomly threw tear gas into a Logan Square street while people — including a 2-year-old — were outside nearby.

blockclubchicago.org

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Christopher Slye @slye.bsky.social · 6d

Remember when Twitter was called a “micro-blogging” platform? I don’t think it was such a bad term, but it certainly disappeared.

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Christopher Slye @slye.bsky.social · 6d

I think @debbiemillman.bsky.social has neatly summarized an under-explored facet of Trump’s ongoing abuse of his office: “Governance, in practice, has been redefined as brand management.”

Opinion | Trump’s Louis XIV Moment

www.nytimes.com

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Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600.bsky.social · 7d

I applaud @civixplorer for this delightful little bit of flag nonsense.

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Christopher Slye @slye.bsky.social · 8d

I love that the ads on this page advertise “Jobs in Germany”.

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 9d

before and after hegseth's directive

Sean Connery is a red strapped outfit. He's very hairy.

William Shatner as Captain Kirk. He's in a black strapped outfit and has a smooth chest.

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Tim Marchman @timmarchman.bsky.social · 9d

My driver, in Philadelphia, has what is absolutely unmistakably an open bottle of Malört in the front seat and I’m not even sure what to be most freaked out about here.

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manakanda.bsky.social @manakanda.bsky.social · 9d

In light of today’s absolutely fucking deranged “I’m in a war movie” speeches by Trump and Hegseth, I give you the plaque at West Point.

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Typographica @typographica.org · 9d

@slye.bsky.social and I are bringing back our type selection workshop to @letterformarchive.org, Oct 25–26: letterformarchive.org/shop/a-crash...

A Crash Course in Type Selection

Learn techniques to make finding the right font the best part of any job.

letterformarchive.org

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